HOVERBOY IN FORGOTTEN SESAME STREET SPIN-OFF
NOVEMBER 11, 2009
Hoverboy Puppet from failed Sesame Street spin-off.
In 1971, three years after the premier of Sesame Street, a controversy was brewing. Some educators and Baptists felt that Sesame Street was confusing to children living outside of urban areas. The lack of picket fences, trees, and cows was cited. Other concerns arose over the title, the complexity of the preschool curriculum, and very few references to Jesus. A leader of one group, Reverend Jimmy Bob commented about, "The cast being so full of 'coloured folk.'" When later confronted over his remarks he claimed he meant the puppets were Yellow, Blue, Red and Green.
Bending to pressure, a PBS affiliate in Arkansas produced a pilot entitled GOD FEARING DECENT AMERICAN STREET which was promptly rejected by the genial Henson.
Eventually DECENT AMERICAN STREET was re-named and released on tape in the late 70's as GOD-FEARING PUPPET TOWN. Hoverboy plays a small part in the show, essentially replacing the Sesame Street Super-Grover segments. Even if the show had gone ahead, Hoverboy would have been dropped. Henson hated Hoverboy after seeing a few episodes of GAY CAVALCADE, and the Muppet creative team argued having a hand puppet hover was impossible. There was talk of replacing Hoverboy with a marionette, but the hovering issue was never resolved, despite two fist fights at the PBS station.
Two screen captures from God-Fearing Puppet Town, sent in by Tom Franks.
A "Fastaction" Story.
Whitemore Books. 1947
4" by 4". 88 pages.
The first of the "Fastaction" series, Hoverboy vs. the Immigrants was a prose novel [loosely based on Vigilance's cliffhanger serial of the same name], published just after the war, when nationalism was still the dominant political philosophy for most American citizens, and a fear of foreign invasion was a popular anxiety.
Though the opening chapter involves little more than Hoverboy on Ellis Island, punching people as they get off the boats, the main story concerns a family of Greek refugees who arouse suspicions in Hoverboy when he can’t place the family’s accent after talking to the mother in a Manhattan supermarket line.
The next chapters involve the Battlin’ Bucket spying on the family, and making notes about their home life and behavior, until Hoverboy finally confronts the father physically on Good Friday, when our hero realizes the family "…doesn’t use the same calendar that decent Americans use…" to determine when Easter is.
Though police eventually do intervene, and save the Greek family from Hoverboy’s anger (though not their home, nor a beloved children’s pet duck named "Demitrios") but there’s a not too subtle message to readers that the cops can’t be trusted in matters of illegal immigration, and that it’s best left up to private citizens to run people with accents out of the country. The final eight pages are a direct appeal to every Johnny and Janey America to do their part to "clean up your town".
Stunning stuff, even for 1947. But the dime novel series lived up its name for "Fast Action" as there are nineteen fist fights and five dead people by the end of chapter one.
See you back here on next week for the next chapter of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST, Hoverboy on Seasame Street?!, a new comic cover, and the first in our new series of HOVERBOY RADIO SHOWS!!
NOVEMBER 4, 2009
HOVERBOY CEREAL MINI FIGURES Iroquois Cereal (1957)
Of the many curses, scandals and lawsuits that fill the Battling Bucket’s history, the Iroquois Cereal Toy Epidemic of 1957 was voted the fifth most tragic by members of the Hoverboy fan club.
By the late Fifties, perennial bottom dweller, "Iroquois Foods" of Liver Creek Tennessee was keen to break into the breakfast big leagues and take on Quaker, Kelloggs and Post. Their idea: to include a collectable Hoverboy toy in every box of their leading products: Nougat Puffs, Frosty Shapes, and Sugared Wheat Globs .
Fearing that the little cellophane bags that the toys came in might be a choking hazard, Iroquois Inc. simply put the tiny Hoverboy figurines directly into the cereal. The toys were easy enough to spot in Sugared Wheat Globs and Frosty Shapes, but Nougat Puffs came in bright colored "puffs" of red, purple and blue and, tragically, the little super-heroes(including the first ever marketed versions of Hovergirl), blended right into the breakfast food.
The final factor that lead to the choking of so many innocent children was when the head of Iroquois Cereal, Colonel Reginald J. Stonewall, refused to "waste money on changing the cereal box artwork" so that no cereal boxes would be marked, "Free Toy Inside."
"The kids never had a chance", Eddie Bascombe, Mayor of Liver Creek said to reporters at the time. "Everywhere you looked, it was kids bent over, spitting up something all over town. Me and the deputies went over to the cereal company with a couple of baseball bats, and straightened everything out, right quick. No trouble after that."
An urban legend claims that over a thousand children were hospitalized in Tennessee within one week of the boxes being. distributed. Astoundingly, no actual deaths were ever directly attributed to this event, primarily because families who bought such a cheap cereal couldn't afford lawyers. Or, as is common in Appalachia, parents just figured, "We're bound to lose a few."
Pictured below are just some of the many figurines available to collectors today. Every one of them was rescued from the esophagus of a ten year old child, and most have been washed off.
A few of the figures retrieved from the esophaguses of Iroquois Cerial Choking victims.
COMING SOON: The Iroquois Cereal 'Hoverboy Villain' Toys
HOVERBOY SERIAL SCRIPT COVERPAGE
Hey Hoverfans!! Today we have an extremely rare history item sent in by a reader, the script cover to the lost Hoverboy serial HOVERBOY VERSUS THE IMMIGRANTS.
The script was co-written by Nutt and infamous Vigilance Pictures director Lars Gurbon. We'll have much more in the coming months on Hoverboy's serial adventures, and the career of the the man dubbed, "The Director of Death!".
See you back here on Monday for the next chapter of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST, and lots more to come next week!
A "Do-It-Yourself" kit (triple-sharp knife included). Instructions told kids to test fit the bucket on their own heads then cut out "Eye Hole".
Led to sixty-one blindings, fifty-eight facial lacertations, one choking and one self-lobotomy. Subsequent lawsuits bankrupted the Nebrasco Novelties company, and then, briefly, the state of Nebraska!
Shown below are the detailed instructions included with the bucket. The buckets themselves are very rare, especially uncut!
50,000 HITS AND COUNTING!!
Hey Hoverfans!! This past week we reached a marvelous milestone. Hoverboy.com passed 50,000 hits, and we're only just gettin' started!
As those of you who've visted recently have noticed, we've got a new look. Over the next week it will be affected across the whole site, making navigation easier!
We're also bringing not only more updates, but cooler stuff as well! Along with the regular historical articles, comic covers and newspaper strips [see today's below], and merchandize from the arcives; over the next month you'll be able to listen to vintage Hoverboy radio shows, see clips from the infamous GAY CAVELCADE puppet show, and episodes from an newly discovered early 1960's cartoon. More Hoverboy than anyone could ever want!
And you can discuss it all in the new HOVERBOY FORUMS!
